Operating WebReader in offline mode

WebReader may be used to read and post articles even if it is not connected to an NNTP server; when WebReader is used in this manner is said to be in offline mode. WebReader will automatically go into offline mode if it encounters an error when attempting to connect to its NNTP server. You may also force WebReader into offline mode by setting Newsreader mode: to offline in the server properties dialog window.

The WebReader product includes an offline news server which must be running before using WebReader in offline mode, otherwise, the error message 

Error opening connection to local host: java.net.SocketException: Connection refused
will appear and WebReader aborts. To start the offline news server, issue the command 
	java OfflineServer
at the windows or shell command prompt. OfflineServer connects to a privileged port, so if you are on a Unix-based system you will need to start OfflineServer as root, e.g., 
	sparc5% su
	Password: 
	sparc5# java OfflineServer
etc.

Prior to operating WebReader in offline mode, you will need to download the articles which you wish to read offline; to do this, from the WebReader main window while in online mode, simply select the group(s) whose articles you wish to download, then press the Download Articles button in the toolbar. This will cause all unread articles, except those specified in your killfiles, to be saved locally for use by the offline news server. After you have downloaded the desired articles, you may switch to offline mode and restart WebReader. The message 

	Connection to offline NNTP server open
should appear, followed by the WebReader welcome message. You may also get messages like 
	Error calling getGroup: sun.net.nntp.UnknownNewsgroupException: <group_name>
where <group_name> is the name of a subscribed newsgroup. This usually indicates that you didn't download articles for <group_name> while online; you may still post articles to the group in offline mode, but you may not read any. To remedy this problem, restart WebReader in online mode, download the articles for the group in question and then restart WebReader in offline mode.

Once WebReader has been successfully started in offline mode, you may use most of the functions which are available in online mode, including reading and posting articles, saving articles, searching, etc. You may not view HTML articles unless they are of the Local HTML type. Remote HTML articles, when displayed in offline mode, will show only the ASCII synopsis. Also, selecting a hypertext link in an article while in offline mode will result in an error. The locator functions are disabled while in offline mode, as are hypertext links contained in articles.

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